Tory MP questions 'plebgate element' in six-month racism probe

A former minister will ask a chief constable today if there was an “element of
‘plebgate’” in the force’s decision to launch a six-month racism
investigation into his description of a gypsy as looking "unkempt".

Tim Loughton: “Political correctness seems to have taken grip within certain sections of the police."Photo: Rex Features

By Wesley Johnson, Home Affairs Correspondent

10:00PM GMT 03 Mar 2013

Tim Loughton, the ex-Children’s Minister, said he wanted to know if officers simply wanted to “have a pop at a Tory MP” as they carried out the inquiry which saw him interviewed under caution by detectives for 90 minutes last August.

In a strongly-worded email, Mr Loughton told Kieran Francis, 42, he agreed with council officials’ description of him as “unkempt” on a blacklist of “customers of concern”.

Mr Francis, who claims Romany Gipsy heritage, complained to police who interviewed the MP, his staff and trawled through his correspondence before the Crown Prosecution Service finally dropped the case last month.

Mr Loughton, who will meet Sussex Police Chief Constable Martin Richards today, said “any reasonable person would have realised this was not a criminal matter”.

Mr Richards will have to answer whether there was “an element of ‘plebgate’ in this as well – the idea to have a pop at a Tory MP”, Mr Loughton said.

It follows the controversy over Andrew Mitchell, the former chief whip, who was accused of calling police "plebs" during a Downing Street row, an allegation he has repeatedly denied.

Mr Loughton said: “I’m seriously concerned that political correctness seems to have taken grip within certain sections of the police, particularly with anything to do with mentions of racism or travellers - they go into overdrive.

“It seems that common sense has gone completely out of the window.”

Asked about the estimated £100,000 cost of the inquiry, Mr Loughton added: “Why didn’t somebody say ‘this is a case where there’s clearly not a case to answer’, rather than rack up a long investigation which has cost goodness knows how much?”

It also has implications for every MP dealing with vexatious complaints from constituents and will be debated in the Commons, he added.

“I hope this does not signal a green light that anybody can be as rude as they like to their MP knowing their MP can’t respond robustly.”

The row followed repeated calls to the council and the Worthing and Shoreham-by-Sea MP’s staff, as well as an online blog, by Mr Francis, whom Mr Loughton described as a “serial complainer”.

But it escalated when the constituent emailed Mr Loughton, saying he was insultingly described in an official council document as unkempt.

Mr Loughton, 50, who said neither he nor Adur council had any idea of Mr Francis's traveller background, sent a strongly-worded email rejecting the complaints.

“As regards the specific whinge about being described as "unkempt", given the meaning of the word as "untrimmed, dishevelled and rough" it strikes me as eminently accurate,” he wrote.

He added the complaint was “another example of the whingeing, self-serving, poisonous b******s that seem to have become your hallmark”.

Mr Francis, who is unemployed, said he was disappointed the investigation had been dropped

““What he called me was racist and disrespectful,” he told the Mail on Sunday.

“My mother was from a Romany family and my Member of Parliament basically called me dirty.”

Sussex Police said in a statement: “An allegation of malicious communication was reported to Sussex Police, and was fully investigated in the same way it would be for any member of the public.”